When we
first came to the Birch Hall Inn. way back in 1981, there was one pump - at the farthest end of
the little bar.

Out of it came Youngers Tartan Keg
beer...the locals and regular visitors were used to it .so we stuck with that, though we did put a second pump in to serve
the other bar. All the other beers and lagers were bottled - in busy times we
nearly disappeared beneath a mountain of empties.

We changed
eventually to John Smiths Magnet, still keg, and put in a draught lager. We
had such a small cellar and trade was so variable that it seemed cask
conditioned beers were not an option.

A few good
summers, a bit of bravado and a cellar training course at the Theakstons Brewery in Masham
put us on the road to real ale in 1989.

Our first
two 'nines' of bitter went down a treat, and since then we've enjoyed trying
beers from far and near alongside our regulars which include Black Sheep Bitter

and our own 'Beckwatter'

We're very lucky to have some brilliant independent
breweries nearby to give a local flavour to our selection on draught..

Too many lovely beers .. so little
cellar-space, of course we have our favourites and there are still
lots that we haven't had chance to try ..but we must be doing something
right.'cos our local CAMRA branch checked
out over 200 real ale pubs in its area and has voted us Pub of the Season

for Summer
2007
Pub of the Year
2007
Pub of the season for Summer 2009
Pub of the year 2010

and then in
June we celebratedPub of the Year 2014

Thanks to everyone
for their support and encouragement ! it makes all those hours spent
tinkering about in the cellar worthwhile